My dear Abby

It's beautiful and scary to see time pass right before your very eyes. Children grow up, parents age, friends move, time never stands still..

I'm thinking about my first born Abby today. Thinking about the fact that she'll turn 16 in just a few months. 16!!! I remember when she turned 3 and we threw her a huge party in Ashburn, VA, at the park with "lots and lots of slides". How she loved that park, and we'd spend hours, days, weeks at that park. I remember it fondly because not only did I share that time with my 2 daughters Abby and Elizabeth (infant at the time) but also with my sissie Mindy and her little girl Anna. We'd pack our lunch, our suncreen and bugspray and head over, plant our blankets on the ground and let the kids run free. Lots of laughs and tears were left at that little park in Ashburn. Such precious memories.


I'm thinking how quickly our lives pass by. We are flowers quickly fading, as Casting Crowns writes in the song "Who am I?"

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours

We only have one shot at this thing called life and I want to make mine an expert shot (I was an expert sharpshooter in the Army, can you believe that?).



Abby has her permit now. She is driving whenever possible, morning, noon and night. Trying to get her 45 hrs of driving time in, so anxious to get her license in November. All I can think is...this can't be happening. Abby is growing up. She is dating, she wears makeup, she does laundry, she's planning for college, her first apartment, her future. I get choked up thinking about it because even though I knew when I had her I'd have to send her off into the real world someday, I never really believed it would happen. She'll be a junior next year, a junior. Only 2 more years and she'll be off to college. I want to savor these next 2 years as much as possible. I want to forget about the things that don't really matter (like the cleanliness of her bedroom) and REALLY enjoy my Abby. I want to go shopping for dresses, get manicures, go out to lunch together, catch afternoon matinees, stop and watch the sunset, hold her, hug her, laugh with her, cherish her.

When life catches up with me, I want to remember that as crazy as life gets, we are only promised TODAY, not tomorrow, not a month from now, not 2 years from now. Life is a great big canvas and we need to throw all the paint on it that we can.




I love you Abigail Linda Tibbetts. You are a constant source of joy and love to my heart!

Think Green

It was a crafty day here at 46 Birch Way yesterday. Those who know me know I adore my crafts. I dream of someday having all my craft supplies neatly organized (even labeled) in bins with tags and lots of large tables, desks with rolls and rolls of blank paper for my girls and me to be creative. I'm on my way to achieving this...

Yesterday we were Thinking Green with St. Patrick's day right around the corner. Becca had to create a leprachaun trap. For a grade, using some sort of simple machine. Little did I know that a ladder is a simple machine.

Simple machine - an unpowerd device that makes work easier

I'm sure I learned that back in elementary school. Good think I have my girls to teach me the basics now.

Anyway, we created a leprachaun hat using an oatmeal canister. The ladder was made by hot gluing small twigs together to make steps. Love it! What do you think? I hope Becca catches those sneaky leprachauns. She is not taking it into school until the due date, out of fear that someone will copy her...isn't that a hoot?


Since Becca was making a cool leprachaun trap, Tori had to follow with one herself. Here's her mini version...adorable!


And since Becca and Tori were making cool leprachaun goodies, Elizabeth had to join in the fun. She created this out of a soup can for a friend celebrating her birthday 3/16. We're going to fill it with gold Hershey treasures and green lollipops. I think it's darling, and cost to make = $0. Best part of it!


Do something creative today, make a gift for a friend, bake cupcakes for a neighbor, send a cheerful email to a long-distance relative. You never know how your actions can affect another loved one!

Flowers, pebble paths and birdbaths

This morning I am dreaming of spring...

ahhh, the smell of the fresh air, the birds chirping, fresh mulch, clean windows..

I really am dreaming.

I do love everything that comes with the arrival of spring. Everyone is excited to work in the yard, clean up the winter debris (ie. pine straw), plant a garden. This spring I'm trying to be ahead of the game; I've drawn a sketch of the things I'd like to achieve in our back yard. The first thing is to clean under our back deck. Jeff is going to enclose the mulched area with a brick wall. I plan to plant hostas, maybe some ivy and other green shrubs underneath. I also can't wait to hang our 2 hammock swings I scored at Plow and Hearth a few months ago. They are just like my Aunt Donna's she has hanging under her deck in PA. My girls love to sit there and swing all their cares away. It's a lovely feeling. I hope mine will be swinging soon.

I'd also love to have another shed in my backyard. I adore sheds, especially the little cottage sheds that look like litte pockets of paradise, perfect spot to tinker in the yard and enjoy quarts of lemonade in the heat of the summer.

I can envision this in my backyard, isn't it grand! My Mom always says she loves her little "rooms" in her backyard. I'm beginning to feel the same way. Something about looking out your window and seeing such delightful little spots, planted perfectly on your grass. I'll keep dreaming of my little cottage shed...



I'll close with this French Proverb very fitting for my garden dreaming today...

"If you would have a mind at peace, a heart that cannot harden, go find a door that opens wide upon a lovely garden."

Hope your day is as lovely as a cottage shed!

Scrapbook has begun...

Poor Tori, almost 7 years later and her scrapbook has not begun...

I guess that's what happens when you're the fourth child.

The scrapbooks dwindled after each child...
Abby's goes till she's 3 (she's 15)
Elizabeth's goes till she's 2 (she's 13)
Becca's first year is complete (she's 9)
And Tori, well, I just didn't get to starting hers.

BUT....today was the day!

She is going to be so thrilled when she gets home from school and see some real pictures (not just on the computer) put on paper, along with sweet sentiments from her Mommy who absolutely adores her...

4 pages complete this sunny March morning...
It's a step, a step in the right direction...

I've always loved this quote and it sort of sums up my feelings for creating journals and scrapbooks for my girls to have later in life...

"We shape our lives not by what we carry with us - but by what we leave behind."

I hope I will leave a legacy of love for my sweet daughters.

Being a Mom...

My last post was about being so grateful for my four little girls

i am grateful for them

but....

there are those days when I question every thing I've done to make my kids respond to me the way they do

for example...

Becca's soccer practice was moved to 3:30-4:30 today, sort of an impossible time for us to get her to the field 20 minutes away when i need to have Abby at a follow-up appt in harrisonburg (45 min away) at 4:30 and Jeff doesn't get home from work till 4:15...

i broke the news to her this morning and you would have thought I missed her birthday or something, very extreme.."thanks Mom (with a look of disgust, disbelief and utter bitterness, and I'm underexaggerating her response)" was all i got. do I not get them to every activity of their lives and strive to always provide as many extra-curricular events i can write in my little calendar? i don't get the "thank you" for every thing i take them TO just the cold shoulder about what they cannot make...being a mom is sometimes tough to say the least


and then there's my Abby

my precious Abby
my almost-16 year old Abby
my full of raging hormones Abby

need i say more....

earlybird pe...the dreaded earlybird
if i would have known almost 2 years ago what i know now i never would have agreed to this earlybird thing

it's really "for the birds"

wake Abby up at 6am, plenty of time to leave by 6:30am...oh, we drive the carpool this week
it's 6:26am and Abby screams down wrapped in a towel from the shower what the weather will be like today??
WHAT!!
it's time to leave Abby, you have 4 minutes to get downstairs
"but Mom, it's not my fault that the clock in the bathroom is 10 minutes slow"

of course not Abby but you could have gotten up when i woke you, you need to hurry and get downstairs or dad will have to leave without you...

repeat this same scenario over and over again and get a taste of my typical morning with earlybird pe...TORTURE!


and then there's my sweet little tori...
running downstairs in a panic and sweat that Elizabeth is showering when it was HER turn to get a morning bath. Elizabeth takes ultra long showers and uses all the hot water and leaves the rest of the family cold, literally

tori thought it was her turn this morning...

again, MY FAULT this was happening, how could i let Elizabeth shower this morning?? tori ranted and raved...

tomorrow tori is your day to be first, i know it's hard being the youngest and also the one who leaves the latest in the morning...your sisters are teenagers though, you'll realize one day how important it is to look good at school (and then realize that it really wasn't)


nothing much happened with Elizabeth today except that she's missing one red soccer sock, my fault I'm sure, but the fact is she has a tournament tomorrow and needs 2 red socks...guess I'll be heading into town to the soccer store...


all this and it's only 8:16am...better pour another cup of coffee, or better yet, brew another pot.